DUMBING DOWN

Published: November 13, 1994

If Henig is opposed to the concept of heterogeneous grouping, I wonder what she would think of the newest New York City Board of Education concept of "bridge classes." A bridge is a class with two grades heterogeneously grouped! In the fifth-and-sixth-grade bridge class I teach, I have 30 students whose reading scores range from the 90th to the 3d percentile, and whose abilities span at least five grade levels. This situation exists in classrooms throughout the city. Can you think of any student who would benefit from being in a class like mine, no matter how hard I try every day? GERALDINE FELDMAN Merrick, L.I.